Hail-Fire
The Hail-Fire is an electronic clip system Nerf blaster that was released on September 9, 2012 under the N-Strike Elite series. It requires four "AA" batteries to be operated. It comes packaged with four six dart clips, twenty-four Elite Darts, and instructions. Details The Hail-Fire is a semi-automatic, flywheel system blaster that holds multiple clips at once. It requires assembly before use. Like other N-Strike Elite blasters, it has a digital camouflage design etched into it. It features one medium sized tactical rail on top of the blaster and a very small one in front of the rotating ammo rack, similar to the one on the front of the Stampede ECS. A clear jam door is located at the top front of the blaster. The battery door is located at the top back of the blaster. It is incompatible with shoulder stocks and barrel extensions. In order to advance to the next clip, the user must push the Hail-Fire's large carry handle, the "Advance Handle", forward and then pull it back. It is relatively difficult to advance fast, so it should be avoided unless when very necessary. The jam door must be closed for the Advance Handle to work. It advertises a firing range of up to seventy-five feet (twenty-two meters). Capacity claims Despite its advertised capacity of 144 darts, the Hail-Fire only comes packaged with twenty-four; another four six dart clips will give the blaster a stock capacity of forty-eight darts. This full stock capacity can be achieved by purchasing the Hail-Fire Upgrade Kit, or purchasing a Hail-Fire value pack. Because the Hail-Fire is compatible with other clips, using eight ten dart clips will give a maximum capacity of eighty darts, eight twelve dart clips will give a maximum of ninety-six darts, and eight eighteen dart clips will give the total maximum capacity of 144 darts. With the addition of the N-Strike Flip Clip, it is theoretically possible to have a total of 288 darts using the N-Strike eighteen dart clips. The N-Strike Modulus Flip Clip would allow the Hail-Fire to hold up to 192 darts. All this being said, the Hail-Fire carousel has been reported by some as notoriously flimsy, and apparently does not advance well with a load much greater than originally prescribed. The Hail-Fire can use eight Firefly Tech clips, four eighteen dart drums, or four thirty-five dart drums at once with no spacing issues. Official description History The Hail-Fire continues the trend of "flagship" Nerf blasters being released on September 9, which first started in 2009 with the Raider Rapid Fire CS-35 under the N-Strike series. Unlike most other early blasters in the N-Strike Elite line, the Hail-Fire is not a successor to any previous N-Strike blaster, making it the first completely original blaster in the series. The Hail-Fire was first discussed online six days after the N-Strike Elite line was discovered in the form of a Hasbro press release on February 10, 2012. This mentioned "the most impressive blaster in the collection hitting shelves on 9.9.12". That same day, the Hail-Fire's name was released. Some fans initially believed that the Hail-Fire would be a re-released Longshot CS-6, in the veins of the Rampage, an updated Raider, and Retaliator, an updated Recon CS-6. This was later dismissed when part of the blaster was revealed in a preview video shown at the 2012 Toy Fair. As a full image of the Hail-Fire had, at the time, not been yet known, there had been speculation as to what it exactly looked like based upon available information at the time and the few given shots of the blaster itself, with some fans going far enough to recreate what they believed it to look like. A teaser "sizzle" video with the full, initial Elite line was released on February 22, 2014. This contained a silhouette shot of the Hail-Fire and not a full blaster shot. The sizzle video was shown at the 2012 Toy Fair, however audience members were not allowed to take photographs or videos of it. Further concepts for the Hail-Fire began popping up during the time span between the sizzle video and its accidental reveal. A German website accidentally leaked images of the three known N-Strike Elite blasters, as well as the at-the-time unnamed Stockade, seen for the first time, on April 5, 2012. It was then given an outright reveal on April 27, 2014. Official images were finally released sometime around May 30, 2012 from Nerf Nation. From there, video demonstrations would be shown and other forms of information until it began appearing on store shelves, in some places earlier than others. In 2014, a Sonic ICE variant of the Hail-Fire was released. Color schemes The Hail-Fire has been released with the following color schemes: *N-Strike Elite (blue, white, black, gray, and orange) *N-Strike Elite running change "economy" variant (same plastic colors as the standard version, but sporting considerably fewer paint operations) *Sonic ICE (clear blue, white, black, gray, and orange) Modification Being a motorized flywheel blaster, the Hail-Fire can be subjected to voltage modification and motor replacement. The two semicircular pieces that cover the clip carousel can be removed after assembly, with some force. Without the large cover pieces, clips do not have to be removed to load darts. This also allows the carousel to be rotated easily by hand. Value packs There is a Wal-Mart exclusive special value bonus pack features a Hail-Fire with a full set of forty-eight Elite Darts and eight clips. Trivia *The Hail-Fire can be re-loaded through the jam door; this is considerably more comfortable than with other blasters, due to the fact that its jam door is substantially larger than most other jam doors. *The Hail-Fire is advertised as the "flagship" of the N-Strike Elite series. *Prior to the 2018 RIVAL Prometheus MXVIII-20K, it had the highest advertised capacity of any stock Nerf blaster. *A flash game was created to promote the release of the blaster called Hail-Fire Test Labs. In addition, the Hail-Fire is also a featured blaster in the Build-a-Blaster flash game. Gallery Official videos Nerf N-Strike Elite Hail-Fire Nerf N-Strike-Elite Hail-Fire John Brenkus Sport Science Video- Extended Cut NERF N-Strike Elite HAIL-FIRE - commercial presentation (by Hasbro) References External links * * Category:Hasbro blasters Category:Nerf blasters Category:N-Strike Elite blasters Category:Battery-operated blasters Category:Flywheel system blasters Category:Clip system blasters Category:Semi-automatic blasters Category:Dart blasters Category:Discontinued blasters Category:Blasters with tactical rails